The Joker's Ball
by frozencatalyst101
Summary: An eerie short story about an innocent man trapped in a web of shadows and compelled forward by curiosity. Not for the fate hearted.


The milkman entered through the unlocked gold embroidered gates of the Greenhill estate, he often passed through to speak to the cheerful butler, before starting the milk round. An eerie silence echoed on the wintery night sky as he approached the white marble mansion nestled between a cove of snow covered trees. He pulled into the large outside steps leading up to the front double-doors. No butler greeted him. He walked slowly up the steps carrying a large delivery of milk glass bottles up to leave on the porch. Before he exited and left the estate, curiosity got the better of him and he knocked on the door. He was greeted with further silence. He knocked again, louder this time and he was instead greeted by the left door creaking slowly and inviting his curious mind further onwards. A pitch black entrance room welcomed him and he stumbled in search of a light switch. The trickle of a fountain nearby added to the aroma of the place. He could barely make out the long velvet curtains that curessed him as he travelled holding onto the wall. He considered the prospect of the inhabitants having moved to a holiday house for the Christmas ahead. He feared that the estate had been burgled and so doubled his efforts to find the light switch.

After spending a few minutes walking bewilderedly throughout the entrance room he managed to make his way up a marble staircase which curved up both sides of the ornate walls, either side of the fountain. He looked to the nearest wall and admired a set of short ivory tusks that he had not noticed since his last admission inside a few months ago. He continued walking up the staircase and listened to the swinging of a chandelier above him.

Suddenly, he heard a scurry of footsteps echo behind him and he ran up the stairs as fast as he could, he briefly looked behind to see no entrance of where he came from. He switched the light on. It flickered intermittently for a few seconds. He then looked back to the large single door in front. A dog came out of the shadows to be beside him. It was on a leash and barked furiously for a few seconds, wagging it's tale back and forth while licking his hands, it then proceeded to run down the steps and into the blizzard outside. He then looked behind him and what he saw sent cold shivers down his spine and paralysed his grip upon reality.

The golden chandelier impaled six suited men without legs wearing black suits, their bodies had been gutted and their intestines ripped and hung over the chandelier. Blood and some guts lay within the fountain underneath and tissue had been finely wrapped to cover much of the chandelier. The impaled bodies were pure meaty flesh with the tissue removed as best as possible. An eye of one of the men lay dangling, suspended in mid air but still attached to the corpse. Teeth marks indented into the necks of all six. The flesh presumably from the legs had been scraped away from the bone and washed over the marble floor. Flesh had been left when no more blood was able to be squeezed out.

The mesmerized milkman slowly glanced to the right, shuddering and jolting as his body entered into spasm. The wall was lined with upright leg bone, six on each side of the staircase. The feet lay directly in front of him nailed to the balcony overlooking the entrance room. He experienced a sense of fear that very few had ever felt; his blood cooled within his body and he felt incapable of doing anything, he wanted to sprint as fast as he could away and yet he stayed fastened to the spot.

After a few seconds of staring at the grotesque scenery, he heard a loud crunching sound coming from within the shadows in the next room. The crunching slowly loudened until it halted at a loud, consistent noise level.

"What a shame, What a shame, I was hoping for symmetry." A soft quiet murmur echoed, the milkman stayed fixed in front, failing to look behind. The crunching continued through the words.

"Now what should I do with you I wonder, what should I do." A tall pale white man walked to the side of the panting man. "I could skin you, beat you, rape you or eat you? I wonder…" The milkman could only see the back of the pale man's head. Then the man turned around showing his face to the milkman. Multiple lacerations, scolds and burns showed underneath the mans bleach white skin. Blood had been wiped on his lips to form a sadistic lipstick. Poorly dyed green charcoal hair and eyes dark as the night contrasted with his skin tone. He wore a black suite like the men Impaled. The pale man slowly caressed the milk man, walking slowly around him. "Ssh, Ssh, Ssh", he tried to calm the milkman's heavy breathing by stroking his face gently. "Do you want a bite?" He lifted his right arm showing some raw flesh coated in saliva, pressing it against the milkman's lips, the milkman's breathing rate increased. The pale man slapped the milkman's face back and forth and bursted into laughing, showing his green tuxedo through his purple sodden suit.

"Why so serious?".


End file.
